Space Brothers Episode 67
What They Say:
Mutta is struggling with his flight training, as Deneil constantly distracts him when they’re in the air. Can Mutta survive Deneil’s unique style?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the last episode helping to progress Mutta along a bit form his excessive but warranted concern over Sharon by working with Deneil, we got a lot of really good material that showcased flying in the T-38 jets. Having been immersed in that side myself for years by growing up with a huge interest in NASA, it was great to see them roll through familiar things with enough quirks and fun character moments to make it just exciting to watch. It also worked well to finally give Mutta a bit of a love of flying that he didn’t quite have before as he got to see the world from a new point of view, which is just the beginning really of his larger journey of looking at the world in new ways.
Though the show starts off with some humor, from an American point of view of Japanese customs and then a hilarious but sadly true look at American eating habits, we do learn of some changing coming up with Mutta is training in that Hibito is returning to Japan for awhile and will check in on Sharon for a bit too. Mutta’s training takes up a lot of the time here overall though as Deneil pushes him hard and it’s easy to imagine that he’s getting exposed to things that the other trainees aren’t yet, though there isn’t any real dialogue among them after the training sessoins which is the only thing that feels a little off. The dialogue we do get is largely between Deneil and Mutta though, which is good since they have a very relaxed nature between them after all they’ve been through and Deneil even makes some particular comments about his sweetheart that’s just perfect for someone like Mutta.
The show has a pretty mellow feeling throughout all of it and some of the moments of beauty when Mutta is flying is great to watch, especially when balanced against Hibito’s time in Japan where he’s talking with Sharon and others a bit about the way Deneil pilots and why it’s important, and also why it’s fun, particularly when it comes to the quizzes that he gives people he’s training. That proves to be a good bit of bonding time, which is fairly important since Hibito has been away for so long and needs to reconnect with the JAXA team a bit simply because. Getting Hibito’s view on what Mutta is going through with his training is also important, especially when we do see the way that Mutta has grown and become confident and calm in his approach to flying.
In Summary:
While this may be a bit of a slow part of the series for people, it’s one that I’m really enjoying in just being able to see Mutta grow and get some hands on learning experience with flying and someone with quite the personality that Deneil has. There’s a lot to like here as we see more of his growth in his flying ability and the way he’s connected with Deneil in a way. We also get some good humor at the start and a few other places as well as some welcome time with Hibito as he heads back to Japan and gets to talk with some of the characters there we haven’t seen in a bit, which touches on his own history while making it clearer what it is that Deneil is doing with Mutta. It’s good stuff all around and just so technically well done and enjoyable that it’s easy to smile throughout it.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.